"If things should appear dark against me?"
"Yes, if you give me your word."
"If I said to you that I did a wrong; that I broke the law of God, though not the laws of man?"
There was a pause in which she drew back, trembling slightly, and looked at him timidly and then steadily, but immediately put her hands bravely in his, and said: "Yes."
"I did not break the laws of man."
"It was when you were in the navy?" she inquired, in an awe-stricken tone.
"Yes, years ago."
"I know. I feel it. You must not tell me. It was a woman, and this other woman, this Mrs. Falchion knows, and she would try to ruin you, or"—here she seemed to be moved suddenly by a new thought—"or have you love her. But she shall not, she shall not—neither! For I will love you, and God will listen to me, and answer me."
"Would to Heaven I were worthy of you! I dare not think of where you might be called to follow me, Ruth."
"'Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God,'" she rejoined in a low voice.